Zahi Khouri (2014 Business for Peace Honouree, Palestinian Territory)

Chairman and CEO, Palestine National Beverage Company

What is your company doing?

In Gaza, where clean water is often unavailable, we have built units that sterilise water for hospitals. Further, our bottling operations have been rated as top with respect to sustainability in the Coca-Cola Company’s Eurasia and Middle East region, including in terms of water conservation and purification (which we give back to neighbouring communities for irrigation and other essential purposes).

Why are you doing it?

In these troubling times, it is easy to respond to our mounting global challenges and insulate ourselves, allowing terror to divide us, when we most need to unite. It is precisely in times like these that we must tightly grasp our human values and fight those that oppose them.

What is the impact?

Through the National Beverage Company, Palestine’s Coca-Cola bottler, of which I am Chairman and CEO, I work to instil the above values in my team every day. As one of the major corporations in Palestine, we strive not only to make money but also to be strong corporate citizens, using our people, our financial power, our networks and our brand to move our society forward.